10 cultural black spots

From the muzzling of the press by an elected autocrat to the death of a theatre activist at the hands of political goons, India has had its list of excesses.

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Swagata Sen

December 19, 2008

ISSUE DATE: December 29, 2008

UPDATED: December 23, 2008 23:12 IST

1. DARK SHADOWVijay Tendulkar under attack

Vijay Tendulkar, who told India Today in June 1980 that “he was branded as a playwright who wrote plays no one understood”,often got into trouble due to his habit of speaking his mind. During the 1970s, this icon of Marathi literature was constantly targeted by the Shiv Sena for depicting its rise in a poor light. One of his plays Sakharam Binder came as a bit of a shock because of the swear words that peppered the dialogues. Then, the censors objected to the depiction of forced abortion through a bloodstained sari in his play Gidhaade.The stain had to be changed to black, marking the moment as a cultural black spot.

2. PRESSED DOWNMedia censorship during the emergency

“Who’s afraid of the Emergency?” proclaimed India Today in December 1975. Well, at that time, every media house was. The 21-month period between June 1975 to March 1977, when Indira Gandhi confused democracy with dictatorship, saw bans and checks imposed on the media and the arts. India responded to her autocracy by throwing her out of power in 1977.

3. READING TOO MUCHFatwa against Rushdie

Rushdie saw a fatwa being issued by Irans late cleric Ayatollah Khomeini

The penning of Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie saw a fatwa being issued by Iran’s late cleric Ayatollah Khomeini for its “irreverent depiction” of Prophet Mohammed.

Rushdie’s own country was one of the first to ban the book that was “hardly read, or read and hardly understood” (India Today, March 1989).

4. THE CURTAIN FALLSSafdar Hashmi’s death

While performing a street play Halla Bol, Safdar Hashmi was fatally attacked by a group of Congress party goons

His was the voice of the masses.And then it was silenced, forever. On January 1, 1989, while performing a street play Halla Bol near Delhi,Safdar Hashmi was fatally attacked by a group of Congress party goons.

His killers could be convicted only 10 years later. But in his death, he “not only turned attention to increasingly unabashed political violence” (India Today, January 1989), but also to the threat to freedom of expression.

5. DRAMATIC IRONYAttacks on Tanvir

RSS incited people to boycott Habib Tanvir's plays and dubbed him anti-Hindu

Only in India could a playwright of Habib Tanvir’s stature face disruptions and boycott of his shows. In October 1982, India Today had reported that western contemporary theatre guru Peter Brook had been so impressed by Tanvir’s Naya Theatre that he had said “the group represents an absolute extreme of purity”.

The controversies began in the aftermath of the Babri Masjid demolition in 1992 when the RSS took umbrage to his play Ponga Pandit and disrupted several shows.

They even incited people to boycott his plays and dubbed Tanvir anti-Hindu. The play had been performed since the 1960s and nobody had found it objectionable till then.

6. CENTRE OF TROUBLEIGNCA takeover

Deepa Mehta had yet another tryst with controversy while making Water

The Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) became an arena for a tug of war when an amendment in its deed in 1995 was challenged in the Delhi High Court, which ordered it to be dissolved.

The amendment had made the centre the fiefdom of the Gandhis, with Sonia Gandhi becoming IGNCA’s president for life and Kapila Vatsyayan a life trustee.

The NDA government retired Vatsyayan after the order. It amounted to nothing when she made a comeback as member of the IGNCA trust 2005.

7. MORE THAN A RIPPLEWater Controversy

Filmmaker Deepa Mehta had yet another tryst with controversy while making Water,a depiction of the plight of Varanasi widows.“An angry mob attacked the film’s sets at Tulsi Ghat,destroying property such as carefully created pillars,” said India Today in February 2000.Mehta went on to shoot the film in Sri Lanka in 2006.

8. BRUSH WITH VIOLENCEHusain forced into exile

M.F. Husain first came under criticism in the 1990s for his nude paintings of Hindu goddesses

The poster boy of Indian art has been living an exiled life for two years because a group of Indians hasn’t been able to understand his artistic philosophy.

Maqbool Fida Husain first came under criticism in the 1990s from right-wing groups for his nude paintings of Hindu goddesses.

But the clincher came in 2006, when a painting of Bharat Mata saw at least seven cases being filed against him, which forced him to first move to London and then Dubai.

9. ART ASSAULTBaroda Student Outrage

“The self-appointed guardians of public morality” (India Today, May 2007) found another victim in an art student at the Maharaja Sayajirao University, Vadodara, Chandra Mohan, when he displayed his works at a university exhibition. The paintings, said to represent Hindu and Christian religious icons in “objectionable” taste, were asked to be removed from the show. Mohan was jailed for a week for “hurting religious sentiments”.

10. WRITING HER OFFAsking Taslima to leave

Perceived to be a threat to their Muslim vote bank,Taslima Nasreen was booted out of West Bengal by the CPI(M) regime. In December 2007, she had told India Today,“I just want to be back”. Sadly, it won’t be anytime soon.

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